On July 6, 2007, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a notice in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts to seek comments (see NOT-OD-07-074) regarding NIH’s system of support of biomedical and behavioral research, including peer review, with the goal of examining the current system to optimize its efficiency and effectiveness. The NIH is especially interested in creative suggestions, even if they involve radical changes to the current approach.

The purpose of this notice is to inform all interested parties that the comment period originally identified in the July 6, 2007 NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts has been extended for 21 days, in order to maximize the opportunity for interested individuals and organizations to provide comments to NIH on this important topic. The closing period for the comment period will now be September 7, 2007.

The collected information will be analyzed and may appear in reports. Although the NIH will try to protect against the release of identifying information there is no guarantee of confidentiality.

A summary of the results obtained from the responses to this RFI will be available to the public on the NIH Peer Review website http://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov. Additional information about the NIH effort to strengthen the peer review system can also be found on this site.